ttec. SO, 1893.1 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



86B 



The dam heard the kitten's smothered wail. She was 

 mad. Her eyes shone like burnished metal. Her ears 

 lay back close to her head and her upper lip was drawn 

 back. Her teeth gleamed white and four of them stood 

 high above the rest. Her nose was wrinkled and the hair 

 on her back stood on end. She looked to be as big as a 

 cow. Her breast almost touched the ground, and her 

 back rose in a curve that told of power to jump. Her feet 

 were drawn forward under her beUy, and her long tail 

 swept once or twice across the leaves, then lay still and 

 straight. Her claws pricked holes in the broad, moist 

 leaves that carpeted the ground, and crumpled them as 

 the sharp, curved nails were retracted. She was not more 

 than forty feet from me. I wished she was forty rods 

 away, for an instant. 



I threw up my rifle just as the dogs came tearing and 

 yelling up. In an instant they were all about her, and 

 all at a respectful distance. The old dogs knew her 

 kind too well to go at her, and the young ones were at 

 first too wary to do so. But there was no reason why 

 they should not make an uproar, and they made it. 



At last, encouraged perhaps by the racket of his fel- 

 lows and by his own brave voice, one young dog ven- 

 tured nearer and barked in the face of the tigress. One 

 of her kittens cried just then. Queen instantly choked 

 off the sound, but in that moment the mother gave a 

 mighty spring, caught that foolish young dog, gave one 

 little shake of her head from side to side. Then the dog 

 dropped to the ground, limp. His neck was broken. 



Quick as the tigress was, the dogs were as quick. They 

 had her by the legs; they had her by the neck; they 

 snapped at the folds of skin in her flanks; they caught at 

 every spot where tooth of dog could get a hold. There 

 was a whirlwind of dogs and leaves, of tiger and of flying 

 hair. Out of this suddenly boimded a lithe form and 

 scrambled up a thick liana that hung low, suspended 

 from the tops like a natural bridge. On the ground lay 

 half a dozen dogs, two of them dead, all the others were 

 badly torn and gashed. Most of the rest of the mob were 

 scratched more or less. 



"Kill um now, bossi Shoot um now!" cried the men. 

 I could have done so, for she lay along the liana, her tail 

 hanging down curled a little at the end and waved slowly. 

 She looked quietly down on her jmnting enemies and of- 

 fered an easy and certain shot as she lay ther, her broad 

 side fully exposed. The sunhght fell fiill on her and 

 plainly brought out the pattern of irregular black spots 

 that marked the bright tawny sides, and merged into a 

 glossy solid black along her back. We could see the black 

 stripes that marked the upper part of her head, and ap- 

 peared like tremendous wrinkles in her flat brow, as she 

 scowled down at the foes below. A little of the breast 

 and belly showed white against the dark vine whereon 

 she lay. She was clearly a jaguar {Felis onea) and not a 

 black tiger {Felis discolor), the fiercest cat in all tropical 

 America; a big brute that often kills fully grown cattle 

 and drags them into the bush, and that is not averse to at- 

 tacking man himself when annoyed by him. 



But the men were wondering and impatient, although 

 I had probably not spent more than thirty seconds in fix- 

 ing Che picture in my memory. The d;>gs, too. began 

 baying at their enemy again. I raised my rifle.' With 

 its crack that spotted bundle of tough muscles was down 

 among those dogs again, and every dog that could crawl 

 was doing his best to get out of the way of the curved 

 claws that cut like a knife. I fired again and broke her 

 shoulders. She could only toss about aimlessly and tear 

 up the ground with her hind claws, nevertheless not a 

 dog cared to go near her. They knew that they had 

 enough . 



Then Queen rushed from behind the tree, and was about 

 to attack the wounded animal with his machete, which 

 would have ruined her skin. I yelled to him to stop and 

 ran to within a few feet of the writliing form. A bullet 

 in her brain stilled her forever. 



Then those barefooted beggars kicked the dead cat most 

 vigorously, and reviled her shamefully, and cursed her 

 for the dogs and calves and colts she had killed, and for 

 all that her kin had destroyed in generations. To add 

 insult to injury of her dead majesty. Queen rubbed the 

 two kittens against the nose of the dead mother. 



"Here, you li'l debbils. W'y you don' take um, huh! 

 T'ink you make Waiha 'fraid; t'ink you mek um run 

 'way, huh! Waiha no 'fraid dem tigre in dat bush, no 

 suh!" E. ^V. Peery. 



;SHOOTEM GOOSE ON CARAQUET SHORE 



I AM often very much interested in the graphic descrip- 

 tions with which your columns teem of camp life and 

 tshooting expeditions, and it has occurred to me thatpossi- 

 My some of your readers would like to read a story or two 

 told me on a recent shooting expedition to northern New 

 iBrunswick. 



"Shootem wild goose on the Caraquet shore" 

 is the refrain of an old song sometimes sung in the back- 

 woods and lumber camps of New Brunswick. I had 

 • frequently heard it, and had a yearning desire to have a 

 practical experience with the geese and brant of that 

 region, I shall not attempt a description of the trip which 

 , four of us took in that direction, nor essay to depict the 

 triumphs and defeats which attended our attempts to 

 beguile the reserved in manner wild goose or the more 

 confiding but all too distant brant. StiLl less have I a de- 

 sire to tell of our struggles to secure the not-to-be-fooled 

 black duck— or 'nvild Injun," as he is called bv the natives 

 of the northern counties of this Province. I simply wish 

 to preserve two or three good stories which were told 

 .around the flickering camp-fire by om- chef de cuisine, who 

 Tejoiced in the euphonious name of Telesfihore; and by the 

 way, we christened him Peter for short. 



I need not tell the "experienced" that the incidents of 

 •each day were recounted in detail as we recliningly en- 

 joyed the after-supper pipe, nor did the aforesaid "inci- 

 dents" lose anything in the recital. The first night's expe- 

 riences in this respect Avere particularly thrilling, not to 

 say heart-rending. The number shot and the "might 

 have been" were in strange contrast: each could sympa- 

 thize with the others, and the confessions were, therefore, 

 less embarrassing. Our friend Willard. who was an ex- 

 cellent shot, had just told us in a lamenting tone of voice 

 of a miss with his first barrel whereby a flock of a dozen 

 honkers had escaped with the loss of but one of their num- 

 ber, when we were interrupted by Telesphore, who had 

 been busily clearing away the remains of our salt cod and 

 pork scraps repast, saying, -'Oh, you talk about de shoot- 

 ing now. Ic is not'ing, uot'ing at all here like what it use" 



to be down in de Tabusintac Bay. I was dere once wid 

 my fader; de blow she was big from de nor'ees; bimeby a 

 big flock she'll come an' my fader she'll fire. Gra-acious. 

 but de goose she'll come down, and my fader she kill sixty 

 wid dat one shot." 



There was a pause. . All were sUent, breathless almost, 

 until our friend George, with significant incredulity in his 

 tone, inquired, "How many?" I hastened to interpose, 

 remarking to G«orge sotto voce, "See here, old feUow, 

 don't spoil a good thing by exhibiting any want of faith." 



And Telesphore, who had stood in triumph watching 

 the effect of his startling narrative, as if to nail home the 

 truth of his statement, and by way of conclusive proof, 

 added: "Yes, dere was jes' sixty goose kill by my fader in 

 dat shot, as I pick dem up and count dem myself. I was 

 dere. " 



Telesphore then quietly proceeded to finish his culinary 

 duties for the day, while we gave earnestly the many 

 causes which could make the accomplishment of such a 

 feat easy in the days of the long-ago, when geese were as 

 plentiful as the flakes of snow which accompany a nortli- 

 easter in the black north in the month of November. 



Our reception of this experience of the long ago— of 

 "my fader" — emboldened our "water boiler" again to 

 astonish lis. The occasion presented itself a few evenings 

 later. The subject of charges and loads, etc., was under 

 discussion, and as is usual when such a topic is intro- 

 duced, there were differences of opinion, and Forest and 

 Stream was frequently 'cited. The civil engineer of our 

 party undertook to demonstrate his theory on scientific 

 principles, when he was suddenly knocked cold by an- 

 other reminiscense from the repertoire of "my fader." 



"I was down on de Tabusintac wid my fader a few 

 years before he die," proceeded Telesphore; "he had been 

 shoot all day, and his powder and shot hes mos' all gone; 

 he come for load de las' time an' dere was only seven shot 

 lef; he'U put it in on top of de powder in de musket, an' 

 dere's good lot powder dere; bimeby a flock of goose she'll 

 fly in very low. My fader he'll fire an' he kiU jes seven 

 goose." 



Telesphore was more triumphant than ever, in view of the 

 general acceptance with which the story was received — and 

 beUeved. We had a long, earnest and serious discussion 

 as to whether each shot took effect and killed a particular 

 bird or whether any one shot killed more than one bird. 

 It is needless to say that the question is still an open one. 

 The theme is one that might be taken up in some debat- 

 ing society during the coming winter evenings. 



Our evenings in camp were always pleasantly spent; we 

 were far from the habitations of man, and were quite free 

 from callers. We depended upon ourselves for amuse- 

 ment, and it did not prove to be very duU. A few nights 

 before breaking camp a proposed and long cherished deer 

 and caribou hunt was discussed. Telesphore in the midst 

 of it suddenly broke in on the conversation by saying, 

 "Mr. Hammei^ley, I 'spec' you seen a moose?" 



I was forced to admit that it had never been my pleas- 

 ure to see one running wild in the woods, although I had 

 seen numberless tracks of them, and ha!d been favored 

 with a view of Hunter SeUick and his famous family of 

 moose. 



"Well," he continued, "I see one once. I was up de 

 big Tricadie, and I was drive along on de wood road 

 wid my horse and sled, de snow, she's been very deep 

 about seven feet, I t'ink, an' on de top dere was one crus" 

 — very hard. I'll drive along on de road, when, bimeby 

 I see one great moose right 'longside de wood road; she's 

 so tire she not able to move. My horse she not go by an' 

 have to get out and take my whip and drive dat moose, 

 an' den he seem not able to get out my way, he so tired; 

 man chase him twenty-five mile dat day from Battus 

 way, an' every jump dat moose make he break tro de 

 crus' and go clear down in de seven foot of snow. I get 

 him move at las', but by gra-acious Ise been so sorry eber 

 since." 



He paused and I breathlessly asked, "Why — why was 

 that, Peter?" 



"Oh," said he, "Ise been sorry 'cos I not take my horse 

 chain an' tie dat moose to a tree. If I do dat, an' I not 

 t'ink at de time, I'll have him yet!" 



We all with one accord tried to console him for his 

 thoughtlessness. Hammerslet. 



New Brunswick.. 



A MIGHTY HARD TRAMP. 



To THE west of Lake Michigan, or rather, to the west 

 of Green Bay, is a vast tract of level ground, which long 

 before the time that white man or Indian first knew it 

 was covered with gigantic trees. These were all up- 

 rooted by a mighty wind, leaving the groimd to this day 

 full of holes and hillocks. After these trees came a thick 

 pine forest, which in turn was destroyed by the terrific 

 forest^fires that raged throughout the Northwest during 

 the autumn of 1871. Since then the dead pines have 

 fallen, and lying in aU directions often 7 or 8ft. deep, 

 they present an obstacle that none but an athlete would 

 care to attempt. After the death of the pines came a 

 thick growth of hardwood bushes, that are now from 6 to 

 oOft. high, and more recent fires have burned the peaty 

 soil of the low grounds away from the roots of these 

 bushes in the low ground and they lie on top of the tangle 

 of logs. 



Now, when the writer of this sees long strings of ruffed 

 grouse hanging in front of the meat markets, as he did 

 in Green Bay, Wis., a short time ago, he straightway has 

 visions of the gorgeous autumn woods, the delicious air, 

 and the soft hazy sunshine of Indian summer; and dreams 

 of brushy thickets, from which with a cluck and a flop 

 there darts a streak of brown, followed bv the crack of a 

 gun, a handful of feathere and the fall of a plump bird 

 into the top of a bush. Not only do these visions come, 

 but memories of such visions reahzed are brought up too 

 and all the good days and none of the blank ones are re- 

 membered. Business says, you are chained to me, so just 

 stop that foolish dreaming. Desire says, you are getting 

 old, and in a few years your legs will' be- too feeble and 

 your eye too dim. Go now, while you can; besides your 

 health of body and of mind demand it. Desire prevails, 

 and decision is made to break loose from business, even if 

 one leg has to be left in the chain. 



Parties inquired of say anywhere north of Green Bay 

 will do; better stop at Gardner, Abrams or Maple Valley. 

 The latter sounding a Utile the best, is decided upon, and 

 noon of next day finds me there, and an hour later begins 

 the tramp through the interminable tangle of fallen logs, 

 brush, bushes and rough ground. An hour and a half of 

 hard work shows nothing but a few signs, and reaching a 



little pine grove I lay down on the soft needles to rest. A 

 pine squirrel is greatly incensed at this invasion of his 

 home; with much chatter and many approaches and 

 panicky retreats he finally plants himseK on a limb within 

 4ft. of my head, and looking me straight in the eye, let off 

 a series of explosive barks that convulsed his whole body. 

 Seeing this does not scare anybody, he goes off in disgust 

 and sets to eating pine seeds, while I resume the tram'p.* 

 thinking if .Joe were only here, how much company he 

 would be, and how he would find a dozen bh-ds where I 

 might find none, Comrog to an old wagon road and re- 

 membering that the birds frequent such places mornings 

 and evenings, I walk along it. There goes one! Got up 

 in the road, 50yds. ahead. He tops the bushes and goes 

 sailing off to the right. Mark him. He is down, just to 

 the right of that tall pine stump. There goes another! 

 It's too far away, but "if you don't shoot you won't git 

 nothin'," so the gun cracJ^, but the bird comes down a 

 hundred yards beyond the first one. A new shell is just 

 put in, when up go two more. Let 'em have it, quickl 

 Crack! Bang! First one gets away aU right, but the last 

 one tumbles into the top of the brush, leaving some 

 feathers hanging on the hmbs to mark where he fell. 

 The imhurt one goes down near the others, and I start 

 after the one that was shot. It took five minutes to 

 climb over and through the tangle of logs, and when the 

 spot was reached no bird was there. It was traced several 

 rods by feathers that dropped as it ran, but it could not 

 be found. How I did miss Joe! He would have brought 

 the bird to me before I could get haK-way to where it 

 fell. 



Going after the others, one of them got up within 

 twenty feet and went straight away, but it was missed. 

 Thereupon I sat down on a log and proceeded to lecture 

 myself as follows: "See here, old man, you think because 

 you happened to knock down a bird fifty yards away, 

 back there on the road, that aU you have to-do is to shoot 

 and knock 'em right out of their feathers. You're rattled. 

 Next time you wait tiU the bird tops the bushes before 

 you try to shoot, and then, mind, you are not to see any 

 bushes yourself, no matter how thick the bushes are; you 

 are not to see the gun, either. See nothing but the bird, 

 and see it with both eyes, too. If you do this your muscles 

 will handle the gun ail right." 



A little walking flushes another bird. Steady now, 

 there he is above the bushes and stiU not over thirty -five 

 yards away, perhaps not thirty. Now, up with the gun 

 (don't see the bushes). Crack! and the bird faUs stone 

 dead. 



While putting in another shell the third grouse takes 

 wing and gets a good start, but falls with a broken wing. 

 Eushing to the spot I find he is not trying to hide, but is 

 walking about and making a clucking noise. I take a 

 shot at his head, but do not see him afterward. Can't 

 imagine how this bird got out of sight in an instant, but 

 he did. There are shot marks and some neck feathers 

 right where he was, but he is gone and can't be found. I 

 next go after the bird that was missed, and get it with a 

 very easy straightaway shot, then conclude to hunt the 

 crippled one some more, and after a long search see it sit- 

 ting by the side of a log, shoot its head and pocket it. A 

 little ways beyond where all this sport was had the thicket 

 joins a bit of pastureland. Skirting the thicket on this 

 side two more birds rise, beyond gunshot. Evidently a 

 couple of wary old chaps of the disreputable kind that Dr. 

 Morris tells us about. One goes i to the thicket and the 

 other flies across the pasture and into some high bushes 

 near the creek. Going after the one in the thicket it got 

 up wild, and the bushes were so thick and tall it could not 

 be seen tUl too far away, but a charge of shot was sent 

 after it just the same. The one across the pasture got up 

 wild, too, so neither of these birds were hurt. 



Shortly after this, one got up 10ft. behind me and cir- 

 cling round to the front gave a very easy shot in almost 

 open ground, but directly toward some cattle, and as I 

 was not hunting cattle and did not want their owner to 

 hunt me, refrained from shooting, and saw the bird fly 

 away across the creek. 



It looked like good ground along the creek, so I con- 

 cluded to follow a cattle jiath that led along the bank, and 

 almost stepped on one that was in the grass at the path 

 edge. It tried the old dodge of flying behind a tree, 

 but seeing what it was up to, I took a snap shot, and was 

 fortunate enough to clip a wing, and stai-ting for it in a 

 hurry flushed another one, which started across the creek, 

 but fell into the water near the far side. Meanwhile the 

 vringed one had got out of sight, and seeing that the one 

 in the creek would soon drift into a wide pool and be 

 diflicult to get, began to pull a pole out of a pile of drift 

 on which to cross the creek. After a few puUs at the pole 

 the crippled bird ran out of the drift. I chased it into 

 the creek, but it only went a few steps into the sliallow 

 water till it turned back. It started into the water sev- 

 eral times, but always turned back and was soon caught. 



Getting the one in the creek I started for town as it was 

 sundown and the village two miles away. One flew from 

 the roadside but was missed. After supper at the village 

 the host remarked, "Of you alvays eat like dot, it vas not 

 long tiU you proke me oop alretty." It was just 10 o'clock 

 that night when I got into the sleeper, and didn't think 

 I'd been there more than thirty minutes when a black 

 face peeped between the curtain and said, "Seven o'clock. 

 Judge, Milwaukee." 



On getting up, the tendons in the back of my legs seemed 

 about '6'm. too short, but a few vigorous kicks and a walk 

 to the Kirby House brought them all right, and felt fully 

 equal to breaking up another German hotel man. No 

 doubt the old ruffed grouse shooters will take the shooting 

 narrated above with a good many grains of allowance, 

 but I beg you will remember that there are sonie days 

 when we can shoot, almost to perfection, and there are 

 other days when we can't shoot just a little bit, and it so 

 happened that this was one of my shooting days. 



Then the shooting ground was not so bad as usually falls 

 to the grouse shooter. The birds flew up above the 

 bushes before starting away, and if a shooter could make 

 his eyes ignore the brush they were really easier shots 

 than if in perfectly open gi-ound. Except along the 

 creek, there were no trees, just the bushes. 



The natives of the village say nobody in that section 

 ever shoots on the wing, none of them had ever seen a 

 dog point a bird and none of them use any kind of dog in 

 hunting grouse; yet the station agent said there had been 

 shipped this season (since Sept. 1) more than $1,000 

 worth at 25 cents each, and all with whom I talked said 

 thousands had been shipped. How do they get them? 

 Stfll-hunt for them; sneak along the roads, "sit down in 



